AirTouch vs Intel RealSense: Sensor or Software?

Here is the short answer. RealSense and AirTouch are different layers of the stack. RealSense, spun out of Intel as an independent company in 2025, makes excellent depth cameras: hardware that produces 3D point clouds for robots, scanners, and machines that need to measure the world. AirTouch is finished gesture control software: it turns any standard RGB camera into a touchless interface for the apps you already run. One is a sensor you build with. The other is a product you deploy. And the two layers can meet: through Neural Lab's partnership with Orbbec, AirTouch already takes advantage of 3D depth sensing and IR cameras, so you can pair finished gesture software with depth hardware instead of choosing between them.

If you are choosing for gesture control, the real question is whether you want to engineer an interaction system or install one.

What is Intel RealSense?

RealSense's D400 stereo depth family, from the close-range D405 to the long-range D455 and newer models, pairs infrared imagers with an IR projector to produce accurate depth maps. Cameras run roughly $270 to $500 and ship with an open-source SDK. The company reports its cameras inside a large share of the world's autonomous mobile robots, and in 2025 it raised a $50M round and announced a robotics collaboration with NVIDIA. It is a healthy, focused 3D vision company.

What RealSense does not sell is gesture control. A depth camera outputs geometry. Someone still has to build hand tracking, gesture recognition, intent logic, and the mapping into your applications on top of it. That someone is your engineering team or an integrator.

What is AirTouch?

AirTouch is patented gesture control and hand tracking software from Neural Lab. It reads hands through the RGB camera you already own and converts gestures into mouse, keyboard, and touch input at the operating system level, so every existing app becomes a gesture interface without integration. Through our partnership with Orbbec, the same software also takes advantage of 3D depth sensing and IR cameras when a deployment benefits from them. Windows, Linux, and Android today, macOS on the way, roughly 50ms latency, with patented intent detection that locks onto the person deliberately controlling the screen.

How do AirTouch and RealSense differ?

• What you buy. RealSense sells cameras and an SDK; the gesture system is your project. AirTouch sells the gesture system; the camera is whatever fits, from the webcam you already have to an Orbbec depth model.

• Hardware. RealSense means a dedicated depth module and an engineering effort on its SDK. AirTouch is RGB-first on cameras you already own, and steps up to Orbbec 3D depth and IR cameras through our partnership when the environment calls for it. Sensor choice becomes a dial, not a fork in the road.

• Sensor range. Stereo depth cameras have working ranges tied to the model, typically a few meters ideal. AirTouch's range is limited by the camera, not the software: a standard webcam covers a room, and deployments run at 20 feet and beyond.

• Sterile and soiled environments. A depth module is one more device to mount, clean, and maintain near the point of care, and its exposed IR optics need a cleaning regime in dirty settings. AirTouch works from cameras outside the sterile field, tracks gloved hands including surgical glove colors, and sees through protective glass.

• Time to deployment. RealSense projects are measured in engineering quarters. AirTouch installs in about five minutes.

• Crowds and intent. Depth data alone does not know whose hand to obey. AirTouch's patented intent detection identifies the primary actor and filters out everyone else.

Where does RealSense win?

Anywhere the job is measuring the physical world: robot navigation, bin picking, 3D scanning, volumetric measurement, outdoor stereo vision. If you are building a robot that must not run into things, RealSense is a proven component with a strong ecosystem, and comparing it to gesture software stops making sense. Depth hardware and gesture software are complementary layers, which is exactly why we partnered with Orbbec: our Orbbec camera guide shows how AirTouch pairs RGB-first hand tracking with 3D depth and IR cameras in one deployment.

Where does AirTouch win?

Anywhere the job is a person controlling a screen. No engineering project, no SDK for your vendors to adopt, zero added hardware to start, and every app gesture-ready on day one because to the app it is just input. When a deployment does want depth or IR, that is a camera swap through the Orbbec partnership, not a rebuild. Per device per month pricing means a pilot is a download, not a capital request. That is the difference between a component and a shipping product.

Which should you choose?

For medical and OEM evaluations we will test against your exact environment: book a demo. For everything else, AirTouch installs in about five minutes on the camera in front of you. Start a free trial.

Related: gesture control and hand tracking software, AirTouch with Orbbec cameras, what is a touchless interface, and OEM gesture recognition.